Coraline [DVD] [Canadian; French]

As covetous children are often warned: "Be careful what you wish for." Its this very cautionary wisdom that sets the stage for Henry Selicks CORALINE, an eerily eye-popping stop-motion animation tale of fractured dreams and families made whole. As the films opens, Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) and her parents (Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman) have moved into the Pink Palace, a once-vibrant boarding house thats turned drab and dilapidated. As her parents work feverishly on a new gardening catalog, the bored and belligerent Coraline is admonished to explore her new worlds possibilities. Along the way she meets her fellow tenants, including two aging English showgirls and a mouse-training Russian acrobat, as well as an outcast neighborhood boy named Wybie. But it is a mysterious hidden door that most piques Coralines interest--a gateway to a parallel world where her "other" parents and neighbors live only to see Coraline well fed and endlessly entertained. All is not cakes and carnivals for Coraline, though, and the black buttons that have replaced the eyes of these otherworldly imitations hint at darker intentions. When these intentions are revealed, Cora and a friendly magical cat use their wits and willpower to defeat Coralines wicked "other mother" and restore balance in the real world. Based on Neil Gaimans beloved childrens novel, director Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) uses the stop-motion technique to bring CORALINE to life with amazing visual and emotional depth. The result is a frightfully magical adventure that will give the whole family plenty to shriek, cheer, and talk about.

3 stars out of 4 -- "[T]hose who tough it out with this twisted, trippy adventure in impure imagination will only be the better for it."Rolling Stone

"The third dimension comes of age with CORALINE....CORALINE is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge."Los Angeles Times

3.5 stars out of 4 -- "It's gorgeous to watch in all its dazzling stop-motion animation splendor....It's exquisite images have an undeniable whimsical appeal."USA Today

"[Selick] stays at child's eye level, letting the 3D process subtly reinforce how a youngster's imagination can be more vivid and real than reality itself."Box Office

"[A]n exquisitely realized 3-D stop-motion animated feature....CORALINE lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange and full of feeling."New York Times

"CORALINE is a dark delight....This eccentric and deliriously inventive fantasy finds stop-motion auteur Henry Selick scaling new heights of ghoulish whimsy, buoyed by a haunting score that works its own macabre magic."Variety

"This thrilling stop-motion animated adventure is a high point in Selick's career of crating handrcrafted wonderlands of beauty blended with deep, disconcerting creepiness." -- Grade: AEntertainment Weekly

"Everyone's in love with someone in HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, a not-quite-romantic-comedy....Slickly adapted by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein from the popular book....[The film] rolls out like an instructional soap opera."Variety

3.5 stars out of 4 -- "The animation is absolutely breathtaking and should be seen in 3D to be fully enjoyed. The story is creepy fun..."Premiere

"Selick's imaginative sets and puppets are in perfect pitch with Gaiman's fantasy. The 3-D effects aren't overdone but are used intelligently to make this world come brilliantly to life."Hollywood Reporter

"Selick has complete command of the 3-D format, adding eerie depth and texture to the image..."Film Comment

Included in Entertainment Weekly's "The Best Films Of The Year" -- "[M]esmerizing....Selick creates a stunning alternate universe for the solitary little girl of the title..."Entertainment Weekly

Included in Chicago Sun-Times's "The Ten Best Animated Films Of 2009" -- "A distinctive visual style and great imagination combine with the deliberate oddness of the animation to create an eerie effect."Chicago Sun-Times

3 stars out of 5 -- "Artfully shot....CORALINE packs a lot in....Admirably, it never condescends..."Uncut